TLDR
- The everyday word for "sorry," "never mind," or "it's OK" in Egyptian Arabic (Masri) is معلش (malesh) — neutral register, used constantly.
- It covers real apologies, but it also softens requests and defuses awkward moments — three different jobs, one word.
- Tacking it onto a request makes "say that again?" sound polite instead of impatient.
- Said after your own slip-up, it's the Egyptian version of "my bad" — light, not heavy.
- Real examples: معلش، ممكن تقولها تاني لو سمحت؟ (Malesh, momken t'olha tani law samaht?) asking someone to repeat themselves, or يا نهار أبيض... أنا قلت كده بصوت عالي؟ معلش! (Ya nahar abyad... ana 'olt keda be-sot ali? malesh!) laughing off an overheard comment.
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The real answer: معلش (malesh)
On its own, malesh covers a lot of emotional ground: "sorry," "never mind," "it's OK," sometimes all three in the same breath.
معلش
malesh
"Sorry / Never mind / It's OK"
What malesh isn't is a heavy, formal apology. It's closer to a social reset button — a way of saying "that happened, we're not going to make it a thing" and moving on.
The words that travel with it
Malesh shows up attached to requests and reactions just as often as it stands alone:
| Script | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| معلش، ممكن تقولها تاني لو سمحت؟ | Malesh, momken t'olha tani law samaht? | "I didn't catch that—could you say it again, please?" |
| يا نهار أبيض... أنا قلت كده بصوت عالي؟ معلش! | Ya nahar abyad... ana 'olt keda be-sot ali? malesh! | "Oh no, did I just say that out loud? My bad!" |
Neither of these is really an apology in the formal sense. The first is a request wrapped in a softener; the second is a joke at your own expense. Malesh is doing the same job in both — taking the edge off.
Egypt's all-purpose social shock absorber
Bump into someone on the street, mishear a question, say something a beat too loud — malesh covers all of it, and the size of the word never changes to match the size of the mishap. That's the point. Dropping malesh into معلش، ممكن تقولها تاني لو سمحت؟ (Malesh, momken t'olha tani law samaht?) turns a request that could sound like "I wasn't listening" into one that sounds like "I want to hear you properly." And using it as a stand-alone exclamation after your own slip, the way يا نهار أبيض... أنا قلت كده بصوت عالي؟ معلش! (Ya nahar abyad... ana 'olt keda be-sot ali? malesh!) does, signals you're laughing at yourself before anyone else has to. Same word, same shrug, different-sized problem — malesh scales down whatever it touches.
Why this matters beyond one word
A phrasebook will translate malesh as "sorry" and stop there, which misses what it's actually doing in most real sentences: managing social friction, not confessing guilt. Learning to hear that distinction — apology-shaped words that aren't really apologies — is a bigger unlock than the vocabulary itself. It's the difference between sounding like you're reading a script and sounding like you actually know how a conversation is supposed to feel.
Malesh has company. See What Does "Yalla" Mean? for the word that starts plans and hurries slowpokes, and What Does "Khalas" Mean? for the one that swings between finished, final, and "you belong now."
The bottom line
Malesh means sorry, never mind, and it's OK — and picking which one depends less on the dictionary and more on how much weight the moment actually deserves. Most of the time in Egypt, the answer is: not much. Say malesh, and move on.
Try it out loud, free, on SpeakMasri, no account required.